This invention relates to acceleration sensitive automotive shock absorbers, and more particularly, to an improved compression head assembly providing the acceleration sensitivity.
In the art of automotive shock absorbers, several attempts have been made to provide an acceleration sensitive automotive shock absorber. The desired benefit of such a shock absorber has been an automobile ride free of undesirable jarring of the automobile occupants and contents caused by encounter of the automobile wheels with the sudden shock of such harsh road conditions as potholes and grade discontinuities. Since it is elementary that a mass is sensitive to acceleration due to its mass or inertia, in that a mass at rest tends to remain at rest, attempts to develop acceleration sensitive automotive shock absorbers have centered upon the inclusion in such shock absorbers of masses which remain at rest while the wheel-connected components of the shock absorbers accelerate with the wheels. This relative motion between the mass and wheel-connected components of the shock absorbers has been used to uncover or cover valve openings in the shock absorbers, providing fluid paths either uniquely open during periods of operation, or uniquely closed during such times.
The following patents disclose such prior art attempts at providing acceleration sensitive automotive shock absorbers as are known to the inventor:
______________________________________ Number Inventor ______________________________________ 3,414,092 Speckhart 2,512,269 (French) Ezbelent 2,375,377 Miteroff 2,774,448 Hultin 3,127,958 Szostak 2,886,142 Orshansky 3,338,347 (English) Avner ______________________________________
The following patents disclose non-automotive attempts:
______________________________________ Number Inventor ______________________________________ 2,942,867 Rumsey 3,656,633 (German) Ostwald 3,696,894 Brady 3,114,705 Pribonic 3,319,741 (German) Hauck ______________________________________
Despite the existence of these disclosures, no commercially mass-produced acceleration sensitive automotive shock absorber is known to exist. A study of the disclosures reveals that problems of reliability, performance, fabrication, compatability with other shock absorber objectives and parameters, design adaptation to specific vehicles, installation, weight and cost may have prevented commercial exploitation of the known devices. As examples, clogging or fatigue may cause a lack of performance stability of the devices. The noise of fluid movement through the valving may be excessive. Dependence on gravity may eliminate the devices from non-vertical applications. Finally, precision machining may inflate costs.